Data knight animation

“During the 8 weeks we have been creating a game style story to inform viewers about cyber resilience.

The animation is called “Data Knight” and is about informing the protagonist about certain techniques to get through cyber security challenges. There are three bosses in the game, those being “the updating boss”, “the password boss” and “the two step verification boss”. The Mega boss/final boss is a burgular he tries to steal all the data from the players iPad.

Cyber Resilience is about protecting your devices from threats. Using strong passwords, two step verification and remembering to update your devices. It is very important to protect your devices as there are lots of cyber threats and hackers right now as technology is very popular. I have now learned how to protect my devices as I did not know about anything like that except the strong passwords.

We wanted to incorporate LGBTQIA+ representation to our animation, and so the main protaginist is non-binary. It has been a great experience working with others that are LGBTQIA+. I feel safe and I get to be myself without worrying about being bullied and judged. Everyone is so nice and they are brilliant artists.

Creative Stirling is a great place to go if you want to get involved with different art mediums. All the staff are lovely and they help when you need it. If you want any advice on studying art or media or podcasting Creative Stirling is a great place to go. Great for all ages. I joined one of the LGBTQIA+ groups called Triangle which was located in the Creative Stirling Venue. Where I met Sam, she talked about what Creative Stirling is and what they do. When I went home I went on there website and signed up for the comic book course in December. I absolutely loved the first workshop and I met a lovely Illustrator called Clare. Clare talked about how she was creating an exhibition about LGBTQIA+ experiences which I was really interested in and I created a tile about how I was bullied at school for being gay and feminine.

After that I signed up for more workshops and then joined the Creative Youth Assembly. That’s how I heard about the animation project. I met Alan which is the manager of the project from LGBT Youth Scotland. He is a very nice and funny guy and whenever we feel stressed or overwhelmed by our animation he and Sam helps us and makes us feel calm again. The full space where we create our animation is a very nice and calming space where all of us feel safe. I really enjoyed learning about different techniques for animating my own art with David Galletly. He is a great artist, and when I saw his art and animations I was so excited to start my own.

I am normally a very independent person with creating things but this has totally changed that I have loved creating this animation with other artists and seeing all of their styles. It has been a bit stressful at times because I’m not used to time management but I am now confident with my final animation.

My favourite thing about this project has been meeting other artists and creating something that the public will see. This project has opened me up to loads of creative things. I have even started volunteering at Creative Stirling. That really says everything. I absolutely loved this experience.”

- MM